i know otaku is someone who likes the japanese culture, but at the same time, i am just not so sure about the exact definition/ criteria of being called an otaku. just how obsessed you have to be to be called an otaku?
It's for you to decide yourself. If you want to get technical (and weeabooish), otaku basically means nerd in Japanese. You could be a hunting otaku, a football otaku, an anime otaku, whatever. If your hobby is anime or manga, you are probably an otaku in American standards.
>>2 is right.
Weeaboo is the best term for a foreigner who obsesses about Japanese culture, the only term really.
Otaku actually expresses your love or fetish (non sexual) for a certain thing. So you can be an anime otaku, movie otaku, metal otaku, sport otaku, cook otaku etc. Though it has taken a bad meaning through the years because of the kind of people that have those obsessive love about things, so it can be considered bad in japan as bad as if you called someone a geek or nerd in US. Look here for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otaku
I agree with the person in post #2. You have to decide yourself if you are an otaku or not. But be careful it's not too flattering to have that name on you. Not only because of what other people will think but also for yourself. I mean that if you just decide to call yourself an otaku you may start subconciously doing things that will affect your everyday life, sometimes to the worse.
Is it Otaku if it's a useful skill or hobby? I mean, cooking for example. Maybe being a gourmet can be an otaku, like being able to distinguish different types of rice by taste alone, that's pretty weird and obsessive. But if you're a passionate chef, and make a living off of it, does that make you otaku? I always felt that in order for it to be otaku, it not only has to be passionate and extreme, but also, useless.
It just has to be passionate. If you can also make it useful then even better.
The reason why you think it should be useless is because otaku in order to do what they are passionate for, they tend to a little, eccentric, weird, strange and to neglect things that "normal" people do. e.x. not study in order to play mmorpg all night. Of course that doesn't apply to all otaku but it's a fact. Otaku also tend to know so many things about what they like and loose the knowledge of other useful things.
"Otaku" = life failure
>>1
It's become a sub part of your whole life. I would say it's more of a lifestyle that prolongs just your adolescence and well into your adulthood. Something you're not going to grow out of.
Otaku = Nerd
Weaboo = Anyone who is obsessed with the Japanese culture to the point where they become annoying as heck!
I've never gotten this, I figure it must be one of those forced memes that have stuck around in society for decades. Normal people DO NOT study! If you study, you're a weirdo!
Otaku doesn't have to pertain to anime, although it's the most comon. In japan there are many types of otaku, they differentiate between anime otaku, millitary otaku, sports otaku etc. Otaku just means obsessive.
Weaboo means really into (a caricature of) all japanese culture, not just anime and manga. Generally people who wish they were japanese and may put on an air of knowing a lot about japanese culture, but in reality only know about the basic idea of what japan is like, not what it's actually like.
in latam, for example, ppl were used to call otaku to people who watch anime even if was just 1, but that changed due the massive anime culture in the whole world. So, yes, in the american context you can be called otaku for wacthing anime, in a obssesed way. Although, emos sometimes are called otakus too
AFAIK Otaku was a nickname obessive Japanese fans of anime, manga and sci fi would use for each other at comiket. A lot of these cats used the internet and that's how it spread. It became a word for internet dwelling weirdos with obsessive fixations including stuff outside anime manga. Amerikan nerd culture seems a bit different. Its socially acceptable and even normal to be one nowadays.
I wonder if Japanese have the same issue with nerd? Are there Japanese out there asking if they are really a true nerd if they like Russian animation? Do they reject anime for the Cartoon Network and act all superior?